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Well that didn’t work out very well. 

At least if you are a Republican.  McCain took a lickin’ and Republicans took a lickin’ across the country.  How soiled is your brand when John Murtha, who called his own constituents rednecks and racists, gets re-elected?

Doubtless there will be millions of words expended on what McCain did wrong and what the Republicans did wrong, but I think the Indecision 08 coverage summed it up for me.  Former Presidential Candidate and flat tax fanatic Steve Forbes, who for some reason was wedged between Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, broke down what he saw as the collapse of the McCain campaign:

 McCain was doing fine, up in the polls, until the financial crisis struck in mid-September.  McCain made a few key mistakes after that.  He declared the economy as essentially sound for one. Instead of taking charge of the congressional Republicans who were opposed to the bailout and trying to offer a less “give away the store” alternative, he glumly signed on to the Bush-Paulson proposal.  Of course, Obama did the same thing, but he was positioned to run against the administration, whereas McCain just looked like he was joining the Democrats and Bush.

McCain still potentially had a few good advantages for all of that.  He could have linked Obama to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae based on being the number two recipient of campaign funds from those failed mortgage buyers.  McCain could also have touted his own attempted reform of Freddie and Fannie in 2005.  Instead, he decided to condemn “Wall Street greed”, which was part of Obama’s and the Democrat’s position on the financial crisis.  Hearing him saying that during the debate, I figured the election was pretty much lost. If, as a Republican, you are just going to “me too” whatever the Democrat position is, why would the voters bother to vote for the “me too” Republican?  Why not vote for the Democrat and get the real thing?

McCain also ignored his own proposals.  His health care plan was far superior to Obama’s, particularly if you are self employed or have a small business, but McCain seldom talked about it,  even when he was given the perfect opportunity by “Joe the Plumber.”

Beyond the financial crisis McCain had several other disadvantages.

            A media that was in love with Obama, and did nothing but fall down in worship of him, tingly legs and all.  How many points in the polls is that worth?

Bush’s popularity, or lack thereof, and a Republican Party that had decided that power was better than principle.

But McCain blew it.  In his concession speech, he accepted responsibility for his campaign and in the final analysis, that’s where the blame has to lie.

So now what?

Well if you’re a Democrat, you expect to attain a higher state of consciousness when President-elect Obama descends from heaven to be sworn in at the capital in January.  And if every Republican Congressman would get caught having sex in a public restroom; well that would be icing on the cake.

If you are Republican though, it’s a bit tougher.

Still, I’m fairly sanguine about the future.  In spite of a Republican drubbing at the polls, and all of the previously mentioned forces that were allied against the GOP this year, I still think this is basically a center right country.  Actually, I should say because of all those forces, the media, Hollywood, and a major financial crisis, this country came very close to putting another Republican back in office, after following eight years of one of the most unpopular Presidents in modern times.  That’s quite a trick.

Obama mania won’t last forever.  True, it could last for a while though.  Obama will have a subservient press corps that George Bush could never dream of.  Chris Matthews has defined his job, “To make the Obama Presidency a success.”  Can you imagine Matthews, or any mainstream journalist saying something similar about the Bush Presidency?

Still, facts are facts.  When Republicans say that tax hikes damage the economy and slow growth, they are not just stating an opinion or conservative talking points, it’s an objective fact which has been demonstrated multiple times in “the real world.”  President Obama will discover that liberal orthodoxy and redistributionist policies have consequences that can only be spun so far, even with the MSM at his beck and call.

So what is my recommendation to the few remaining Republicans in Congress dealing with Democratic bills to raise taxes and squeeze “big business” with more regulations?

Let ‘em.

If President Obama thinks the path to economic recovery is covered in high taxes and regulations, he deserves the opportunity to demonstrate it.  It shouldn’t be the Republicans standing in his way.  Let him get the credit, or the blame for the consequences of his own policies.  The tax revolt of the 1970’s, beginning with California’s Proposition 13, set the stage for national Republican domination for nearly two decades.  If Obama wants to recast the Democratic Party once again as the party of choking taxes and stifling regulations, why expend effort and energy to try to stop him?

Who knows, maybe Obama is actually right, and raising tax rates on the productive classes and increasing capital gains rates will set off an economic boom.  I say let’s find out.  The people have spoken after all.  And we will let the people speak again in 2010 and 2012.

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History will be made tonight and it doesn’t matter which party wins. Tomorrow morning we will all wake up to either the 1st black president, or the 1st woman vice president. Those two things alone make this an interesting race. If only those were the only two things of interest.

For the first time in history we have had a sitting president with such a horrible approval rating that we are going to either elect a black man with a foreign name, a name that resembles two of America’s arch enemies, or we are going to elect a woman who doesn’t have a clue as to what her job or the 1st ammendment is and who her own campaign calls a ‘Whack job’.

Thank you George Bush.

I’m going to miss George. I really am. I could always count on him to do or say the wrong thing.

So I will miss him.

I don’t have any clue what to expect from what we are about to get. Sure, I believe that Barack will be statesman that we all hope that his is, or McCain will be the maverick we should all be afraid of. But that doesn’t help to prepare me for what they will actually do when they are in the Oval Office. In 2000, George Bush ran and won on the idea that he would restore honor to the office. Well, that didn’t turn out as planned. Now one party is running on the idea that we are all one and we are all United, while the other seeks to divide us into ‘real’ America and Anti-America.

No matter who wins, over the next few months I hope that we can all find it in ourselves to lay down our partisanship and come together as a whole country. My fear though is that one side will never be able to do this.

If Barack loses this race, millions of voters will never vote again. Why would they when they have witnessed everything that was the beacon of American crumble because of one party, only to have that party win another election. I know I could never muster enough ‘ummph’ to vote again. This is not a threat or a

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promise or anything of the sort, it is just the truth of it. Why rally around someone who brings as much hope and inspiration as Barack Obama has done, only to see him lose to an inferior ticket due to lying or exaggerated rhetoric. What would be the point in ever getting excited,inspired and hopeful again?

I don’t believe there is a pundit or voter out there who has looked at this race and said “John McCain ran a brilliant race that should be the mold for all other races” and yet, if he wins, that bad judgment to run such a horrible race will no doubt float over into bad judgment when running a country.

I do not know where this country is headed tonight. All I know is that I am a part of history this time, instead of a student of it. It’s an excitable and yet, sad time.

Book cover via Amazon

Yes, I am sad to see George go and I hope that no matter who gets elected, they follow somewhat in his footsteps and give Jon Stewart 4 more years of comedy and Bill Maher 4 more years of New Rules

The only thing to look forward to if McCain is elected is watching to see if more than 57% of the population can continue to think Sarah Palin is wrong for the Vice President’s job.

Let that sit for a minute……

If 57% of the population thinks you are the wrong person for the job, that you aren’t qualified enough, wouldn’t it stand to reason that you shouldn’t win anything in a democratic election?

I have one final thought to leave you with….On Boston Legal last night the British girl said “it’s a democracy, shouldn’t the one who gets the most votes win?”… the reply “That, would be too easy”

So get up! Go out! Vote early! Vote often.. and don’t make it easy for them.

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Do you ever wonder if they understand what it is exactly that this guy is doing?

Wouldn’t you think that somewhere along the way, someone would have taken them aside and said “Hey, you see that guy with the funny looking doo-hickey on his shoulder? Yeah, him. Well, he’s not playing a mutated trombone, he’s actually recording you..you know, on tape.” Someone along the way should have clued these guys in.

In 2000, John McCain was running for president. He lost the nomination but while he was running he made some great comments, such as this one.

Girl asking question…”Isn’t it like socialism and stuff….that’s their money not the governments, How is that fair?”

John McCain’s answer…”When you reach a certain level of comfort, there is nothing wrong with paying somewhat more”

huh…

Well, I guess he can just claim ‘mad cow’ and keep calling Barack a socialist for following his general tax plan from 2000,2003,2004. The plan that called for getting rid of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and letting the people who are a little more comfortable, pay a little more.

Or, someone could explain to him how a video camera works.

I would think it would be embarrassing to have your running mate promise to support and if elected, enact these polar opposite policies. But then again….She told congress “Thanks, but no thanks for that bridge to nowhere” when she really didn’t tell them that.

Of course neither McCain nor Palin want to spend excessive amounts of money for fruu-fruu things, stuff they like to call ‘pork’. They don’t want to waste tax-payers money. But she isn’t above wasting tax-payers donations.

It’s funny, because when John Edwards billed his campaign for 2 $400 haircuts, the entire atmosphere went insane. When Palin does it..ehh not so much. Maybe it’s because she really needed the swag she bought, being a hockey mom from a small town ain’t cheap ya know.

• $75,000 at Neiman Marcus
• $50,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue.
• $789.72 at Barneys New York

It’s takes alot of money to dress,shoe, and coif a family of 7 plus one boyfriend.

It’s really telling of a persons

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character and judgment, that while Joe the plummer was watching his retirement shrink every day during the economic meltdown, the Governor was out shopping in the Big city. Those small towns might be where the “real” America lives, but New York City is where the “real” Governor of Alaska shops. It’s a shame she couldn’t find a “mom and pop” store, or a start-up clothes bouitque in some of those small towns she’s been visiting lately. Because I’m sure that with the way this ecomony has been lately, they could have used the $150,000 more than Neiman Marcus. Not saying that Neiman didn’t need the money, I’m sure they are suffering also. It’s just that I find it a bit hypocritical to run a campaign on the backs of small towns,small businesses,UN-elitistism, and Anti-excessiveness and then go on a shopping spree with donation from tax-payers in the biggest city on earth.

Speaking of wasteful pork, and extreme excess.

In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin’s daughters’ expenses and $19,000 for her husband’s.

Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400.

One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek’s third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor’s office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300.

Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children’s travel expenses, Garnero said: “We cover the expenses of anyone who’s conducting state business. I can’t imagine kids could be doing that.”

I guess $11,000 for airplane tickets for a 7 year old is fiscally responsible and I also guess that when Joe the plumber visits the Big Apple he stays in a $700 a day hotel. … I really guess I should have been a plumber.

OH and if you think people are only talking about this because the MSM is so slanted and so biased against Sarah Palin? I have a haircut for you.

so please, spare me the ‘woe is me’.

Let’s break this $150,000 down and see if maybe it’s explainable. The average American spent about $1800 on clothes in 2006, that means it would take Joe the plumbers 83 years to spend what Palin did in a matter of hours. It’s not just the amount that was spent, but the timing of it also. The down-to-earth, mother of 5, small-town Governor was out having her day of shopping and coiffing in the early weeks of September. Also going on in early September, John McCain was saying that “The economy is fundamentally sound”, and I guess if I was watching my running mate spend that kind of dough, I would think everything was rainbows and unicorns also. But those of us in ‘real’ America, the America that doesn’t have $5,000 for make-up, we were watching the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, the bankrupty of Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan and the sale of Merrill Lynch. The 1st weeks of September, while Governor Palin was out shopping for extreme high end clothes, our financial world was collapsing.

But Joe, is “scared for America” if Barack gets elected?

No, it’s not explainable. Not even the explanation from the McCain camp of “They’ll be donated to charity,” is good enough. I can understand her need for clothes, I cannot understand her need of $150,000 worth of clothes for her, her husband,her daughters, her daughters boy friend, and her baby. I cannot understand that at all. I further cannot comprehend how this is proof of ‘fiscal responsibility’ or how anyone can keep campaigning that they will change Washington, they will make famous anyone who tries to spend too much,and they are the conservative party that doesn’t want to spread your wealth around. My only thought is that maybe this is what the members of the Republican party meant for their donation to go to. Maybe while they were sitting the kitchen of their home that was about to be foreclosed on, hoping they could get a few more miles on the balding tires, hoping that gas would go down just a few more cents so that they could start buying just a little more food for their children,believing that John McCain and Sarah Palin were the mavericks who were going to shake up the Government and stop all the wasteful spending,maybe while they were shorting their power bill by $25 so they could send in any kind of donation to help McCain and Palin get into the White House, maybe they knew that their money would go to her shoe fund. I’m sure they are proud that their children didn’t have new shoes to start school with this September, because they understand that Sarah Palin, her family, and her daughters boy friend needed new clothes from Sak’s Fifth Ave instead of, Target,Ross, or even the substandard white trashy stores like Belks or Dillards. Little Joe can be proud of his faded out tee-shirts and last year’s school back-pack he had to re-use, because really, they do look like a million dollars in front of the cameras…

and that is what’s important and what matters today. Because in today’s world, Michelle Obama’s off-the-rack $148 dress is the ‘real’ definition of elitism.

Wake up people! Wake up and look at your fiscally irresponsible ticket! They aren’t taking your money and giving to seniors who have lost everything in the meltdown, they aren’t taking your money to give healthcare to all the children in the United States. They aren’t spreading the wealth to the other 95% of the population,they are taking your money while your retirement portfolio is losing 50% of it’s value and they are shopping with it.

Let them eat cake?…you betcha!

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Taxes.

John McCain keeps saying that Barack Obama is going to raise everyone’s taxes, redistribute the wealth and most of all that he is socialist…. Yes, McCain said the “S” word today. I think I finally see the problem. Somewhere along the way the Republicans have turned the word “socialism” into meaning Communism with despotic rule. This is bullshit scare-tactics at it’s finest. Democratic socialism is as much communism as Sarah Palin is a Rhodes Scholar.

Socialism is liberal. More people (preferably everyone) have some say in how the economy works. Democracy is liberal. More people (preferably everyone) have some say in how the government works.

Communism is conservative. Fewer and fewer people (preferably just the Party Secretary) have any say in how the economy works. Republicans are conservative. Fewer and fewer people (preferably just people controlling the Party figurehead) have any say in how the government works.

A common mistake is to confuse Socialism, the economic system, with Communism, the political system. Communists are “socialist” in the same way that Republicans are “compassionate conservatives”. That is, they give lip service to ideals they have no intention of practicing.

Or

Socialism is the grey area where some things are planned (Say Healthcare or Coal mining) but Communism is where all major facets are planned and controlled (Say Bread prices, Jobs, Land ownership), etc.

Our problem here is that we want better education, we want a space program that rivals china, we want our fire and police departments to respond quicker and get paid more, we want our soldiers to fight wars on all fronts and protect us from evil. We want roads without potholes and bridges that don’t actually crumble. But we don’t want to pay for any of it.

Somewhere along the way, Republicans have convinced their base and some of the independents that a magical fairy gives us all of these things..

and if Democrats ever get elected, that charming little creature will die.

In Florida we have a horrible school system. Why? Because we also have a retirement community that votes against raising taxes by a a penny to help our schools. Why should these retired transplants pay an extra cent for schools when their kids are either grown or living in another state. Our schools are on a bare-bones budget already this year, with having to cut $150 Million from their budget, only to look forward to another 10% cut next year. But hey, not my kid, not my school, not my problem. It’s the same thing with our roads or transportation. I want better roads and I want high-speed rail, but I damn sure don’t want to pay an extra penny for it.

What’s wrong with all of us paying a little bit to enhance our world for everyone, instead of letting the guy on wall street, who takes a helicopter to work everyday, keep his tax break.

I am so tired of reading the scare tactics from the right….. Obama wants to take your money and give checks to poor people. No, what he wants to do is to get the ones who can afford to, pay a little more. How much more? 39% instead of 36%. OH my God! The nerve of that uppity man asking Donald Trump and Warren Buffet to pay $39 dollars on every $100, instead of paying $36 dollars like I would.

Ask yourself, is that $3 difference going to hurt me or Bill Gates?

What McCain wants to do is let me and The Don keep our $3… That sounds great. But so does having an education system where the teachers don’t have to supply their own classes with outrageous things like paper and pencils. It sounds pretty damn good to have our kids taught with books from this century or SWAT teams across the country to have the same kind of firepower the criminals have so that they aren’t outgunned. It’s also a great idea if the fire department could have a portable communication device that actually works and lets them communicate dangers and evacuation orders to each other.

But really, to make the Don pay $3 more than me to get these things is Red Communism at it’s finest. It’s ok that our soldiers have to buy their ammo and body/truck armor. There soldiers, they’ve learned to overcome and adapt. Richard Fuld on the other hands needs his $30 million dollar Park Ave. penthouse and his $14 million beach house.

The problem isn’t wealth. The problem is greed. No, it’s not going to hurt Donald Trump to pay an extra $3 compared to me. It’s just going to piss him off because he doesn’t think he should have to pay more than me. I get that, those are his profits and he wants to keep them, but when they are his losses, well those he’ll gladly share with everyone.

The Washington Nationals.

Damn the republicans are good. There are really really good. We don’t torture anymore, now it harsh interrogations. When we unlawfully and secretly detain someone, it called rendition instead of kidnapping. We call it climate change instead of global warming because no one can agree whether global warming is happening, but they can agree that climate change is…Taking old definitions and making new one. It’s delicate and artful.. hell, it’s as masterful as anything Da Vinci did and the Republicans are good at this.

Obama want to nationalize healthcare which will be to the detriment of our medical community and our country. See how brilliant that is?

Here is what Obama has said, see if you can spot the differences.

He wants to let people join a national plan to help make healthcare affordable. If you have insurance now and you like it, you keep it. If you don’t have health care, he wants to open the congressional plan to everyone to buy into.

Do you see it?

He wants to Nationalize healthcare and give it to everyone.

He wants open a National plan, and make it affordable to everyone.

They’ve taken the word “National” and changed the meaning to “Nationalize”. Military life is ‘nationalized” you go where they tell you, you eat when they tell you, you dress and look the way they tell you, you wake up and go to sleep when they tell you. What we did for Wall Street and the banks to help them out is Nationalization. Making a healthcare plan ‘nationwide’ and ‘affordable’ for people to ‘buy into’ is not nationalization.

Consider, If all the Disney Worlds Parks across the world went to Blue Cross/Blue Shield(BCBS) and said “We want a healthcare package for all of our employees to buy into”… The plan would be huge, how could it not be when Disney employees hundreds of thousands of people. But the cost of that plan per person is almost nil. Why? Because the more people in the plan the more ‘affordable’ it is.

Ya see that? ‘affordable’. It’s as plain as day. Obama want affordable health care. Meaning people will have to buy it, meaning he’s not giving it to everyone, meaning he’s opening the pool to more people so it’s more affordable for everyone.

This whole time I, and others, have been letting the Republicans get away with this play on words. We need to stop!

“He wants to nationalize it and all you have to do is look at how Medicare is run to know the Government would fuck it up.” Only a Republican can get away with condemning their government’s ability while saying how proud they are of it and noone says “what?”. We have allowed the word play between “National” and “Nationalize” to go on. We need to stop.

John McCain wants to give your insurance company a check for $5000. He’s made you believe that he wants to give this to You…. But he doesn’t. You won’t get a check every year for $5000, your insurance company will. Remember, McCain doesn’t like cutting checks to people, but he’s happy to cut them to BCBS. I guess this sounds good to some people, the people who like to change definitions, but lets apply Mickey’s Buoyancy theory here.

The buoyancy theory is that if everyone started off with a $1milliion dollars, then the cost of everything else would rise. Joe the plumber will charge you $80,000 to snake your toilet because money is no longer a ‘rare’ product.

So what happens when all across the country insurance companies start getting a $5000 check? Buoyancy happens. They raise their plans up by $5000. So not only are you not getting the money, McCain is giving money to insurance companies.. He’s against redistributing wealth, but not when that wealth is going to Big Business, only when Joe the plumber might get a rescue. McCain’s plan doesn’t lower healthcare costs, it actually raises them. His plan isn’t to help you, it’s to give more money to another wall street company! But maybe they need it more than we do.

Would you like to Biggie size that…

For so long we have heard the cries of “we don’t want more government in our lives” This is a joke! An absolute joke and we Dems have been too stupid to be in on it. No, they don’t want more government. Not when it’s to benefit every class. But for despotic rule? Sure. The Republicans/conservatives are more than happy to have government protect us with surveillance and wiretapping, torture and the Pat act. They want the government to tell us in writing that gays cannot marry, they want the government to tell us that we can’t burn an American flag and they want government to tell us what we can or can’t do with our bodies. No, they don’t mind having a huge government in every aspect of our lives and we need to stop letting them get away with saying the opposite. If we are going to allow the government the right to suspend habeas corpus and then torture us, then we should also allow the government to open a nation-wide healthcare plan for everyone.

Stop letting them lie. Start calling them on it when they say they don’t want bigger government in their lives, change the argument and tell them that asking for an amendment to make it illegal for 2 men to marry is letting a bigger government in their lives. When they said Barack would nationalize the medical community give them a dictionary and help them understand the difference between nationalization and a Nationwide plan. And finally when they scream “No new Taxes” tell them that you are OK with paying $3 dollars more to help employ more teachers, police, firefighters, and ambulance divers and you are OK with not only giving them the proper equipment, but also giving our soldiers who are fighting for us, the proper gear that they need.

There’s no need to get angry and hostile. No need for attack ads. We just need to learn to stay on topic and not let them change the argument into one we can’t argue, like we all, including me, have done for too long. The Republicans aren’t opposed to Socialism or Nationalization. They are only opposed to you and me having them. We’re, you, me and Joe-taxpayer, are paying off the debts of the huge corporations, while allowing them to privatized their profits. We pay off their bad loans and they keep the money they make off them. .

Like the skewering of words in Baracks plan, it’s time stop letting them get away with changing the words around to make it sound better or worse to enhance their arguments. Damnit, . It’s not a ’rescue’ It’s Socialism for cooperate America and free-market capitalism for everyone else, and it’s time we call them on it.

Let’s get this out of the way, can we..

If we are going to talk about who someone supported in the past and say that it’s relevant today to show their judgment and leadership abilities, that it will give us an idea of who they will bring with them to the white house, lets get it all out there and move on to things that really matter.

Barack has been criticized for his ’ties’ with ACORN. Yes, he did defend them once and yes he did donate money to a subsidiary of theirs. Like Drudge uses pictures to prove that Barack is going to steal your white women, the McCain campaign uses his ties to ACORN as proof that Barack will steal your vote.

Here he is sitting next to Florida Rep. Kendrick at an ACORN-sponsored February 2006 rally, in Miami.

Wait, that’s not Barack Obama… That’s John McCain. I guess the “Maverick” is there to repudiate them like he assures us he can do. I know a picture in this campaign isn’t worth a 1000 words, hell even video isn’t worth anything, but maybe a video will show us all how McCain is going to whip their you know whats…

oh.

Here’s the thing. This rally wasn’t 5 or 10 years ago, it was 2 years ago this week and John McCain wasn’t just there to say “Hi”. He wasn’t there to tell them that they were “destroying the fabric of democracy” and “perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country” he was the key note speaker that day. In fact he has been a great supporter of ACORN over the years.

Either his judgment was wrong 2 years ago, or it is wrong today. Either way John McCain was so much of a supporter of ACORN’s that he traveled to Miami to speak for them, and if association with them is bad judgment then not only does McCain have the same bad judgment, he’s also suffering from forgetfulness since he doesn’t remember this support. The forgetfulness can be explained by age, the bad judgment? Well according to Fox news when Obama does it, can not.

William Ayers.

The idea behind this one is to show that you should be afraid of the Arab Barack Obama because he pals around with terrorists. It doesn’t matter that Obama has denied or reasonably explained it away.

It doesn’t matter that the same republican family that asked Barack to be on the panel with Ayers is also throwing their political support behind McCain, not too mention all the money they have given to Republican, which McCain or any Republican has to yet to address or ‘repudiate’. What matters is Barack associated with a terrorist and that makes him scary and risky and his judgment unfit to be President.

He’s Pallin’ around with terrorists…

John McCain as recently as the 2nd debate was boastful of this accomplishment in helping the “freedom fighters” in Afghanistan repel the Russian, even using it as evidence that he is somehow, superior to Barack

MCCAIN: First of all, I won’t repeat the mistake that I regret enormously, and that is, after we were able to help the Afghan freedom fighters and drive the Russians out of Afghanistan, we basically washed our hands of the region.

Maybe the other lesson McCain shouldn’t have ignored is the fact that Osama Bin Laden helped to fund those Freedom Fighters that McCain was so pleased to have also helped. John McCain aided,encouraged, and praises the mujahideen, the group funded and aided by Bin Laden, efforts in Afghanistan and is sorry that he didn’t do more to help them.

I guess I shouldn’t look that far back in history and judge McCain. It was a different time back then and Osama Bin Laden was good when we aided him, but then he changed into the despicable man that attacked us is such a horrific way on September 11,2001. But if I can’t judge McCain because a good man can turn bad, why can’t a bad man like Ayers turn into a good, citizen of the year?

Speaking of 9/11. The country we went after in retaliation of that attack was lead by another despicable man, Saddam Hussein. You recognize that name don’t you? You should, the speakers at John McCain’s rallies have said it enough. Only they aren’t saying it to remind you of Saddam. No, they are just saying it because it’s Barack Obama’s middle name that’s all…

If Saddam was such a bad person, and we know he was, then by default anyone with his name should also be a bad person, right? The truth is I can’t quite get my head far enough up my ass to see your point, but lets’ go with it anyway.

They have the same name so they must be the same people or have the same values.

William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

Oops.

The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein’s government.

Umm, well.. You see my friends.. I know how to win this war.

Timmons’ activities occurred in the years following the first Gulf War, when Washington considered Iraq to be a rogue enemy state and a sponsor of terrorism. His dealings on behalf of the deceased Iraqi leader stand in stark contrast to the views his current employer held at the time.
John McCain strongly supported the 1991 military action against Iraq, and as recently as Sunday described Saddam Hussein as a one-time menace to the region who had “stated categorically that he would acquire weapons of mass destruction, and he would use them wherever he could.”

Ok, so what do we know. We know that having the same name as a terrorists makes you a terrorist. So what does mean when you hand pick the man who is going to lead your transition team, that by the way is the man who is going to help pick your personal if you are elected President of the United States. What does it mean when that man actually lobbied FOR the terrorist while he was considered a terrorist?

I guess McCain can deny it

But testimony and records made public during Park’s criminal trial, as well as other information uncovered during a United Nations investigation, suggest just the opposite. Virtually everything Timmons did while working on the lobbying campaign was within days conveyed by Vincent to either one or both of Saddam Hussein’s top aides, Tariq Aziz and Nizar Hamdoon. Vincent also testified that he almost always relayed input from the Iraqi aides back to Timmons.

But that just wouldn’t be truthful. Not that truth has mattered much to John McCain lately.

So now that we know that McCain is supported by the founder of the same terrorist panel that Obama served on with Ayers and that McCain is proud of his work with Osama Bin Laden and doesn’t much care that the man in charge of his transition team worked and lobbied for Saddam after the 1st gulf war when he was considered a rogue leader..can we either label McCain as a terrorist sympathizer or just move the fuck on to something that actually matters like I don’t know…. Whether Barack wears boxers or briefs? Because really, If he doesn’t take care of his boys then what kind of President will he be?

President Palin do you do solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of your Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?

Sure, it could happen. John McCain isn’t as young and healthy as he once was. Chances of him becoming incapacitated or dying while in office are exponentially increased because of his age. I’m not saying anything that we all haven’t thought. So yes, President Palin could be standing along Pennsylvania Ave with her hand on the bible taking the oath of office and leading this country with all her wisdom and vast political experience, before any of us, including and especially her, are ready for it.

The right wants to point to the fact that this is a make-believe fairy tale. They counter that there is also a chance that McCain will live and she will learn while on the job, but Barack, well Barack will be the one who is actually in driver seat on day one if he gets elected.

Fair enough. I can’t argue that.

Palin is the only one on either ticket who actually Governed.

Fair enough. I can’t argue that.

It’s also fair enough that Palin is a beautiful, charming, no nonsense, tough as nails woman who took on her own party when she saw corruption. By all accounts she’s a down to earth, full-on red-blooded American sweetheart. A true-blue patriotic American sweetheart who was once part of a party that since 1970, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaska to secede from the nation.

Whoa… Whoa.. Whoa…… What?!?

The Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) is a party that was founded by a goldminer who was fiercely proud of his state, doesn’t want to be buried under the American flag and wants Alaska to secede from the United States. From October 1995 through July 2002 Todd, Palin’s husband, was a member of AIP. In 1994 Sarah Palin was also a member and they of even attended the state wide AIP convention in her hometown of Wasilla.

Now that’s my kind of patriot. That’s the person I want standing on the lawn of the White House, in a pretty dress-suit, with her beautiful family surrounding her and looking on as she takes the oath of office. I wonder how that works though. Is she taking the oath of office for this country? Or for the country the AIP wants to create when Alaskan leaves the Union.

The man who founded the Alaskan Independence Party, Joe Vogler had this to say about America

“I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.” …

“The fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American government.”

AIP’s leader is also on record as saying that members “must infiltrate the other two party’s” and “push for ‘Alaskan independence‘”. Well, I guess you can check that off the “To do” List.

If Jeremiah White’s words and actions painted Obama as unpatriotic, then what does the Palin’s own action paint her as?

There are other things in Palin’s past that are sure to come out in the coming days. But with the allegations of her abuse of power, her teenage daughter pregnancy and marriage, her ultra-short time in office, the republicans have been stripped of running on experience, family values, ethics and now patriotism. How can they give any speech on any of these issues with Palin waiting in the wings?

On the other side is a controversy that if proven could rock the chance of Obama to enter the White House. On the Republican side, the Vice Presidential candidate was a member of a group that doesn’t want or even like, the United States of America.

Only in America..

To be fair, The McCain camp has since denied this whole thing. But of course they would have to. Imagine the judgment issues had he not known about this and the teen pregnancy issue. Of course he is the maverick, maybe he did know about both and went for it anyway.

But whether he knew about it or not, AIP members do know and they say that the McCain campaign pushback that Pain was never part of the AIP is “hooey.” and “..like a cat covering up crap in its litter box”

It will be disputed whether she was an actual member or not. Since her husband was for 7 years though, does it make it any better if she wasn’t? It didn’t matter that it was Barack’s pastor who said those awful things. His judgement and his patriotism were called into question for his association with Rev Wright. So can we use this against Sara Palin the same way? In and of itself, I don’t think so. My husband and I have very different political views so I wouldn’t want to be judged by his. But we also have her judgment for not supporting those explicit sex-ed programs. For not supporting abortion even in the extreme case of rape or incest, and then bad judgment call of trying to get her low-life brother in law fired when she became governor.

In and of themselves, none of those things are enough to disqualify her from the 2nd most powerful job in the world. But taken as a whole… they should give one pause. The also all beg to question, if John McCain knew about all of this, what was he thinking and if he didn’t, why the hell not! If he would put such a person on his ticket who the MSM has uncovered more dirt on in the last 5 days than they were able to for the last 18 months on Barack, why in the hell would anyone trust him to run the oval office? How could you trust any person he would pick to serve at his pleasure?

We had a maverick in office who put people in jobs as he saw fit, whether they were qualified or not and we saw how that work out, (heck of a job, Brownie)… So do we really want another one?

What a bizarre political crossroad we find ourselves at this year.

Watching Hillary Clinton bring an end to the roll call vote during the Democratic convention had several thoughts go through my mind.  First off, it looked like the Obama team wanted to make sure Hillary knew she was beaten by rubbing her nose in it.  Bad doggie!  I also thought of an executioner who tells the condemned, “Yeah, go ahead and you put the noose around your neck.”   Amusing?  Sure.  A little sad?  Yeah, that too.  When she stopped the roll call vote, Hillary probably knew she was well and truly fucked, but I didn’t get how fucked until today.

I was taking a shower after working out and was thinking about Hillary (believe me, this had to have been the first time I thought of her while I was naked) when it suddenly struck me like a bolt of lightning, “I’m out of conditioner!”  But after that, another thought occurred to me, Hillary lost her one good shot at being President.  That is something that she was no doubt aware of as she called off the roll call vote. 

Consider:  If Obama/Biden wins in November, and has a fairly successful Presidency, he’s in for 8 years, and Hillary doesn’t get a shot until 2016.  However, she is going to have competition: Joe Biden.  Biden is a man who has lusted for the Presidency for decades, and has made no bones about his ambition.  Biden is 65 now, and will be 73 in 2016.  Age is not quite the issue it used to be.  McCain is 72 today and still in the running.  Biden has a 90 year old mother, so maybe long lived genes run in his family.

So in 2016, Biden will have been the long serving Vice President, the establishment, standard bearer for his party. That would be an uphill battle for Hillary.  So barring some crazy political upheaval, Hillary’s only chance of being President is if Obama loses in November so she can hit it in 2012 with a big fat I told you so.  I suppose she could be content with being a New York Senator and fighting the good fight from the senate, but I’ve always thought the senate was a stepping stone, not a destination for her.  As a PUMA representative said on O’Reilly tonight (and I’m paraphrasing here), if Hillary had the top spot and Obama had the number two spot, that would guarantee 16 years of Democratic control of the Presidency.  Now it’s guaranteeing 16 more years of Republican control of the Presidency.

Well, at least there is a bright side.

I think Obama’s chances for winning the top spot are a bit better than the downcast PUMA rep gives him credit for.  But for some of these women, they have no one to vote for in November.

This brings me to the workout that led to the shower that led to the Hillary epiphany.  Yes, I’m telling the story in reverse order.  Pretend it’s that too clever by half Seinfeld episode when the gang went to India. Or if you want to get pseudo highbrow, pretend its Slaughterhouse-Five.

I was at the gym on the treadmill when McCain introduced Gov. Palin at Dayton.  At our gym we have a bank of TV’s across the wall for all of the treadmill and elliptical machine users to stare mindlessly at, just as if we were all at home on the couch.  Normally, I’m listening to my podcasts on my mp3 player, but watching the action on some of the TV’s I decided to unplug from that and plug into the jack on my treadmill to get the audio from one of the TV’s carrying the Palin speech..

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but the first thing I thought of was, “Damn, she’s hot.” Not something I ever thought I would say about a potential VP choice, particularly after 7 plus years of Cheney.  I had never heard of Palin until today, but I had to say, she gave a good speech.  That’s important.  In politics it doesn’t matter how bright, knowledgeable or witty you are if you can’t communicate it. 

It became clear, at least to me, that McCain was seriously going after the Hillary supporters.  Particularly with this line from Palin’s speech:

I think as well today of two other women who came before me in national elections. I can’t begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and, of course, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign.

It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.

 So thanks, Hillary, for ramming your head again and again into that glass ceiling.  It should be loose enough now for Sarah Palin to push through.  But that’s always the way isn’t it?  Moses didn’t cross the river Jordan, and Jesse Jackson, who has been the go to guy for every racial grievance for the past few decades, is never going to be President.  Other’s get the rewards for sacrifices that the pioneers make.  I guess that’s why it’s called sacrifice.

Hillary supporters are not monolithic.  Most of them, after the bruising primary battle, dusted them selves off and like good soldiers supported their party’s nominee.  Some, like the downcast PUMA rep on FOX tonight, couldn’t.  Others will grudgingly vote for their party in November, and some won’t be able to bring themselves to.  And some, for the first time in their lives, are finding their party’s candidate so unacceptable they are thinking of voting Republican.

Crazy election times we are living in.

Earlier this morning…

I was at home at work when I heard on the radio that Palin was McCains VP pick.   Sarah who?   I clicked on the TV and channel surfed the news channels to try to get some info on her.  I didn’t really know what to think.  I knew that for Republicans, who McCain selected for VP was important, and if it wasn’t the right type of person, it was a deal breaker.  McCain was on iffy terms with many of his party as it was.  Trail balloons of him selecting Lieberman or Tom Ridge had enraged the Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s of the Republican pocket universe.  McCain had a multitude of bad choices and only a very few good choices.  I myself thought he would go with Romney, a man he personally despised but who might settle down the right wing of the party (paradoxically, since Romney as Governor had been more liberal that any other Republican running, but that’s another story).

What I quickly gathered about her: governor, mayor, NRA member, hunter, blunt, son in the Army, all made me think it was a good pick.  Not one I saw coming, but clearly one to shake things up.

Of course she could turn out to be friends with a terrorist, or have some sort of crazy preacher, and that could sour the deal.  But at first blush, she looks like a good VP pick, and one I wouldn’t mind seeing in Maxim.

So now the two tickets are, in a weird way, balanced.  They are both “historic” in the sense that no matter who wins, it’s going to be the first something.  And you have inexperience but great ability straddled with experience, just flipped on each of the tickets.  Biden, as the adult, is sitting in the backseat and letting the kid drive, and wizened McCain is driving Miss Sarah in his model T. 

Just a thought, but I think I might plan to take the day after election day off so I can sit up all night, eat my finely buttered popcorn, drink my beer, and blog away as the returns come in. 

This is going to be the best election ever!